MERIDIAN — Borah’s ace stepped up when they needed him most.
Entering the 5A District III tournament, the Lions had lost five of their last seven games. With the postseason underway, it served as a chance for Borah to have a fresh start in a new season.
Brady Robinson led the charge for the Lions in the district quarterfinals against Boise. The junior pitcher struck out 15 batters, issued no walks and allowed two hits across seven innings. With his shutout performance on the mound, the offense only needed a few things to fall their way to advance to the semifinals.
Borah did just enough at the plate to defeat the Brave 3-0 Saturday afternoon at Owyhee High School.
“He’s been doing that for us all year,” Borah head coach Tony Zaragoza said about Robinson. “He did a good job working ahead, getting first pitch strikes, getting leadoff hitters out. That’s essentially what we expect him to do everytime he goes out there.”
Boise didn’t have any of their leadoff batters reach base. The first hit Robinson allowed came in the second inning, a single to right field. In the next four innings, the side was retired in order. The other hit came in the seventh inning, with the Lions up 3-0.
On a windy day at Owyhee High School — with wind gusts up to 40 mph — Robinson used it to his advantage.
“I tried to put them in the zone and let my team do the work for me,” Robinson said. “It was windy and the ball was moving a lot. It was a good day to pitch…It added a lot more run on the ball. My arm felt good.”
He says the winds added run to his fastball and changeup. Even without high winds, Robinson has been excellent this season. Entering the game, he held a 2.73 ERA in 33 1/3 innings pitched with 55 strikeouts and 13 earned runs.
They needed every out they could get with the offense struggling to produce runs. Boise starting pitcher Michael Myers allowed six walks through four innings, but the Lions had only one run to show for it, which came on a throwing error by Myers.
Borah separated themselves a little more in the bottom of the fifth inning. After Myers let two batters on with a hit by pitch and walk, the Lions scored two runs off two errors by Brave third baseman Brody Newberry. He had two balls hit to him that bounced out of his glove, allowing the runs to score.
For a team that has struggled to score runs at times in conference play, Borah will take any runs they can get.
“Offensively, we’re not going to be the team that hits balls off the wall,” Zaragoza said. “Kids have done a good job understanding who we are, that we have to bunt. We have to draw walks, get hit by pitches. That’s how we played all year. Push to score with a guy on third base. Just trying to be consistent with that.”
And with how Robinson was pitching, a 3-0 lead was insurmountable for Boise.
OWYHEE 11, MERIDIAN 1: The No. 12 seed in the bracket gave the Storm all they could handle. The score was 1-1 through four innings.
But Owyhee broke through in the final two frames, getting six and four runs across the plate in the bottom of fifth and sixth innings. Gage Haws drove in four runs, including a three-run home run in the sixth.
The Storm advance to play Borah at home on Tuesday.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN 11, CAPITAL 1: Six runs in the second inning powered the Grizzlies to a win over the Eagles, who they faced last Friday. Rocky Mountain has now won eight of their last nine games. Five of their seven losses this season have come to Middleton, Eagle and Owyhee.
MOUNTAIN VIEW 4, TIMBERLINE 1: Connor Marshall went the distance for the Mavericks on the mound, tossing seven strikeouts and allowing four hits. The offense scored three runs across the fifth and sixth innings to pull away. Patrick Judge, Ryan Yesford and Evan Perry all contributed an RBI for Mountain View.
The Mavericks will face Rocky Mountain in the other semifinal on Tuesday.
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